What is Allergic Rhinitis?

Our body has Antibodies which acts as the defense mechanism. It fights against the bacteria or any other foreign bodies from entering our body. This fighting antibodies sometimes gets aggressive and fails to identify, thinking any air particles entering the nose as its enemy and start fighting against it by secreting the high amounts of mucus to wash the particles from the nasal mucous membrane resulting in the disease called as Allergic Rhinitis.

Causes
Causes for Allergic Rhinitis may be due to allergens such as Pollen, dust, grass, perfumes, any particular food aroma or food, insects, termites, pets etc. There may also genetic predisposition of allergy in some patients.

Symptoms
Symptoms depend on the Acute and Chronic phase of the disease.

Acute phase usually starts within 5-30 minutes after the exposure to allergens. Symptoms are violent sneezing, constant watery thin nasal discharge, irritation in the eyes, burning eyes, itching in the eyes, nose and the throat, hoarseness of the voice, nasal congestion, extreme weakness due to continuous sneezing and nasal discharge. Chronic symptoms are due to the repeated attacks of the acute phase. There may be a thick grayish discharge from the nose, edema of the eyelids, cobblestone appearance of the conjunctiva, loss of smell. Symptoms may occur both seasonal at the particular time of the year and perennial, i.e throughout the year.